The hearing of the high profile legal battle between Abhishek Lodha of Macrotech Developers and Abhinandan Lodha’s (House of Abhinandan Lodha) has been adjourned to January 27, the Bombay High Court said.

The case pertains to the ownership and usage of the Lodha brand. Macrotech had filed a suit saying that the brand “Lodha” was a trademark and no one else could use it. They further demanded a perpetual injunction to the tune of ₹5,000 crore. The court of Justice Manish Pitale which initially heard the case said that injunctions more than ₹100 crore are handled by Justice Ajit Doctor.

The company that was founded in 1980, was split between the brothers, when Mr. Abhinandan Lodha separated to form a different entity.

“Lodha’s brand has been built with lots of investment and effort over 40 years. It is critical for the company to protect its IPR and ensure that no other developer creates confusion of being similar to/same as our brand. Our shareholders include the world’s most renowned investors and one of India’s largest charitable entities – we are duty bound to protect our company’s valuable rights,” a Lodha spokesperson said.

“Initially, it was agreed that each family member would take some assets and some debt. However, at a later stage, Abhinandan insisted that he does not want to handle so many customers, debt and construction and hence, wants only money. As a result, Abhishek and his parents were left with ₹20,000 crores of debt and Abhinandan separated to start new business with pay out of ₹1,000 crores,” Macrotech said in a document highlighting the key clauses in the petition.

Responding to the Macrotech statement House of Abhinandan Lodha (HoAL) said, “They have stated that Mr. Abhinandan Lodha was given ₹1,000 crores . This is a lie which is contradicting their own case in court filed last week where they have attached the family settlement agreement of 2017 which clarifies that under all the awards and settlement document Mr. Abhinandan Lodha has received ₹429 crore and some apartments all amounting to ₹500 crore. It is sad to see that a public listed company is trying to mislead the public through media. There are some other issues stated in this annexure which will be dealt with at the appropriate forum.”